Clapham

Clapham is a district of south-west London lying mostly within the borough of Lambeth, with some portions extending into Wandsworth. Clapham High Street originated as a Roman military road from London to Chichester, and, in 965, King Edgar of England gifted the land to Jonas, son of the Duke of Lorraine; his family would own Clapham until the Norman Conquest of 1066. In the late 17th century, large country houses were built in Clapham, and the wealthier merchant classes settled in the area from the 18th to early 19th centuries; Clapham was also home to several notable reformers, the most famous of them being William Wilberforce. The coming of the railways in the late 19th century transformed Clapham into a commuter suburb, and the area had lost favor with the wealthy class by 1900. From the 1930s to 1960s, council-owned social housing was built in the area to replace demolished upper-class homes, while other grids of Victorian homes remained intact. During the 1980s, Clapham underwent gentrification, and it became a generally affluent neighborhood during the 2000s, although many of its middle-class residents lived next to public housing. In 2011, 51% of the population was white British and 16% other white.